We had been fishing since before dawn without a single bite.
Maybe the water was too warm. Maybe we weren’t trying hard enough. Perhaps we
were simply content to just float and watch the sunrise in silence.
When the mist cleared, we noticed someone on the
beach. "How's the fishing?" he shouted. My friend, Pete, heard him
suggest we cast out in another direction. We thought, what the heck, we’ll try.
To our surprise, the fish were hitting and before we knew it, we had caught our
limit. We took up the anchor and headed to shore.
The man on the beach was bending over a
campfire and we could smell the fresh bread he was baking in a dutch oven.
Pretty soon we heard the sizzling of fish in the pan and we realized just how
hungry we were. The man smiled and waved and invited us to bring some fish and
join him. All of a sudden Pete cried out, took off his shirt, and jumped in the
water to swim to shore. The rest of us rowed in and pulled the boat onto the
sand. Crazy Pete - we were all thinking.
We walked over to the campfire, and
there, to our utter shock, cooking breakfast for us, was the friend we had
watched die just a few days earlier. Were we dreaming? He was joking and
talking as if nothing had happened, and he warmly greeted us.
Our friend was alive. He was alive! And he was
making us breakfast! Pete sat next to him, weeping. What was this? What
happened? All we knew was that the joy and love felt greater than ever – and
our hopelessness and grief were now turned to hope and laughter. Jesus was really here.
When he died, we grieved that things would
never be the same again.
And now that we knew he was alive, we were - and are - sure
of an even greater truth which sounds the same but means so much more:
Things...will...never...be...the same...again!
My book, "Tapestry," is available at Amazon.com. It, too, will give you nourishment of the soul! Click here for information and to order: Tapestry
I welcome comments. Please feel free to post!
ReplyDelete